Supreme Court upholds anti-terror law. The First Amendment does not protect humanitarian groups or others who advise foreign terrorist organizations, even if the support is aimed at legal activities or peaceful settlement of disputes, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. In a case that weighed free speech against national security, the court voted 6 to 3 to uphold a federal law banning "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations. That ban holds, the court said, even when the offerings are not money or weapons but things such as "expert advice or assistance" or "training" intended to instruct in international law or appeals to the United Nations. The court's majority said it was not abdicating its role in protecting constitutional freedoms but acknowledging that Congress and the executive branch are better situated than the judiciary to decide what kind of restrictions are needed to keep Americans safe in a post-Sept. 11 world of terrorist threats.
Chief Justice John G. Justice Stephen G. The Real News Network. Open Society Institute. Military in Iran seen as taking control. An Easy Way to Dramatically Change Congress. By David Swanson There are lots of ways to change Congress that falsely appear easy, that would alter the rules and patterns of behavior if only Congress were already fixed and willing to make the changes, or if we owned the television networks, or if people could suddenly hear what they're paid good money never to hear.
But I've got a way to change Congress that is actually easy. Congress lacks leadership. U.S. War Crimes:Justice Deptt Is Unwilling To Start Trials Of Wa. BP CEO Tony Hayward told: "you need to be charged with a crime." U.S. Tax Dollars Fueling Afghan Insurgency - CBS Evening News - Billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are fuelling corruption in Afghanistan and funding the insurgency, according to a six-month investigation by the House subcommittee on National Security and Foreign affairs.
The committee's chairman, Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass., told CBS News: "the business is war and the war is business and you've got 'Warlord Inc.' going on over there. " Committee investigators found that private contractors in Afghanistan have been paying local warlords, criminals, government officials and a list of others for security on Afghanistan's roads, to get much needed supplies to U.S and NATO bases. "Is this what we fought the Nazis for?": Beck's staunch defense. Glenn Beck has repeatedly rushed to the defense of corporations and corporate executives that have been widely criticized for recklessness, corporate greed, and alleged violations of federal laws. Beck has specifically defended BP, AIG executives, and Toyota.
After oil spill, Beck defends BP against the government, asks, "Is that what we fought the Nazis for? " Why are we so focused on the problems Afghanistan's vast mineral. The breathtaking news of the latest estimate of the latent mineral wealth of Afghanistan, already partly understood but now confirmed by two systematic aerial surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007, has already been downplayed as a possible force-multiplier of the country's existing miseries.
Huge deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium (a key ingredient in the manufacture of laptop batteries) could not only intensify the determination of the Taliban and their allies to retake the country and enrich themselves into the bargain; it could also give an incentive to the country's other enemies: its warlords and its parasitic oligarchs and those among its neighbors who are less choosy about what kind of government the nation ends up having.
How do you count the barrels of spilled BP oil in the Gulf? - By. Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, the federal government estimated that the Macondo well was spilling approximately 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, based on aerial photographs.
(One barrel contains 42 gallons.) Since then, the estimates have floated steadily upward. BP now says that the worst-case scenario would be 100,000 barrels a day, if the blowout preventer were removed. These numbers raise several questions, not least of which is ... Right Wing Scams: 'Why Don't You Start Calling Me Gordon?' By Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy All but forgotten now, Enron --it's rise and calamitous fall --dominated front pages and sucked up airtime until knocked out of contention by 911.
As I was reminded, it was the ghost of Gordon Gekko, brilliantly portrayed by Michael Douglas in 'Wall Street', who both presaged and haunted the fail of Enron and all those who served it or were temporarily enriched by its corporate shams and schemes. As was the case in the 'Roaring Twenties', fortunes were lost in a heart beat, economic empires collapsed in the blink of an eye. Andrew Reinbach: Assisted Suicide in November for the GOP. The political gods have been good to Democrats lately.
Republicans nominated several absolute loons to run for Congress; they painted themselves as protectors and apologists of BP; and in the course of punishing the unemployed, they seriously upset both doctors and governors. These are weapons that liberal lions like LBJ would have swung to great advantage. LBJ knew how to get Republican votes, but he was unencumbered by any urge to validate Republican talking points.
Now, not so much. Nobody could imagine President Obama pushing around a senator the way LBJ bullied Sen.